


If I Ever Get The Nerve

by thelilacfield



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 5 + 1, And trying his best, Domestic Bliss, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Marriage Proposal, Vision Is Pure, and there's a kitten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 13:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15583110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelilacfield/pseuds/thelilacfield
Summary: The words on the tip of his tongue aren’t ‘I love you too’. No, the words that surge forward, aching to be said, are far more important. A question, a promise. That he can’t ask. Not now. Not when he doesn’t even have a ring.The year after defeating Thanos and Vision's attempts to ask Wanda to marry him.





	If I Ever Get The Nerve

**A/N:** This is pure, tooth-rotting fluff in a post-Thanos world where all the Avengers are alive and free to live in domestic bliss. I hope you all enjoy it!

Title from  _Marry Me_ by Train. Wanda's Sokovian towards the end of the fic is actually Croatian, courtesy of a friend of mine. Feel free to run it through a translator. or let it remain a mystery!

* * *

**1.**

A sky webbed with scarlet, the ground dry and cracked and pitted with the shattered remains of the infinity gauntlet, and Wanda suspended in the air, shining as bright as a star, wind whipping around Wakanda, the world on the verge of chaos. He tries to run forward against the force pushing him away, to help her, but Carol extends an arm out to block him, holding him back. "She's got this handled," she says, pride warm in her voice.

"She'll die," he says, voice cracking over the words, the terrible fate he can't see a way out of. "Captain,  _please_ , let me-"

"Vision, stay here," she says, her eyes hard and her mouth set. "That's an order."

The blaze of red grows even brighter, glowing eerily on the faces of teammates sheltering each other, buckling as the wind grows stronger, the roar of Tony's boosters filling the air as he fights against what's trying to push them away. Thanos is falling, buckling to one knee, and Wanda is encased in red, blazing scarlet. And though her next words are no more than a whisper, they echo around the battlefield like thunder.

" _No more Thanos_."

Terrible screaming, the glow so bright Vision has to turn away, seeing teammates with their eyes closed, clutching each other. The sky seems to crack, crimson at the edges of the fissures, there's a blast of heat so strong that everyone is thrown backwards, and the world goes to darkness.

Vision awakes to the sky blue once more, the ground solid and the grass growing greener than before, a sweet breeze blowing through the distant trees. A world set back into balance. Teammates stirring with groans around him, and he stands to look further, to a circle of grass blackened and smoking, and a huddled mass wrapped in a torn red coat at the centre of it.

Tony's waking breath of, "My God," echoes behind him, racing down the slope to Wanda's side, turning her onto her back, jerking his hands back when her ashen skin is scalding to the touch, wisps of smoke curling up from her body, her eyes closed. Natasha skids to a halt next to him, hand going to her mouth in horror, Mantis and Strange just behind her, Strange seizing Wanda's wrist, wincing, two fingers pressed to her pulse point. "Nothing," he says, low and sad, and there's a burning behind Vision's eyes.

Mantis sets a hand over Wanda's forehead, her antennae glowing, and there's such profound sadness in her expression, her eyes clouding over. "I feel nothing," she says, and Natasha turns away, shoulders shuddering. "She sacrificed everything to save us."

"No," Vision breathes, taking Wanda's hand in his, twining her limp fingers through his, gazing down at her peaceful face, statue-still and pale. "She can't be gone."

"To erase a being from existence completely is a unspeakably difficult accomplishment," Strange says, voice remarkably steady, Mantis standing up and turning her face into the sorcerer's shoulder. "It's simply the laws of magic. Once a spell is committed to, the connection can't be broken. She put all her life force into destroying Thanos."

"No," Vision repeats, and puts a hand to her face, the heat faded from her skin, her eyelashes dark against her blanched cheeks. "She's alright. She  _has_  to be."

"Vision, come on," Natasha says softly, every word hitching with tears, and there's a hand curving over Vision's shoulder. "She did it. She sacrificed everything to kill Thanos. She would want us to celebrate saving the universe."

"Wanda?" he says, and shakes her gently. "Wake up. It's okay, you did it, the danger's gone. The palace is safe, we'll go there, we'll celebrate. We'll start again. You can choose the next place we go - maybe we can go back to Sokovia?"

"Vision, buddy, let's stand up." Tony's carefully level voice, his hand replacing Natasha's. "There's nothing we can do for her."

"Get someone to make up a bed in the east wing," Vision says, mechanical, clutching Wanda's hand tighter, her fingers limp against his. "She likes to watch the sunrise. And...and make sure there's waffles for breakfast. They're her favourite."

"Vision,  _please_ ," Tony says, almost begging. "I know how it hurts, I promise I do. But we have to keep going. We'll find a nice place to bury her, the best gravestone money can buy. You can choose where."

"No," he breathes, looking up from Wanda's still face into Tony's eyes, pain lacerated across his face. Mantis crying, held upright by a stone-faced Nebula. Natasha in Steve's arms, crying into his shoulder, tears carving clean trails through the dirt and blood smeared across Steve's face. Doctor Strange's cloak rising to wipe a tear from the sorcerer's eye with a corner. "She's not...Mr. Stark, she's not-"

"She's dead, Vision," Tony says, and despite how gentle and soft his voice is that words are like lead in Vision's chest, a weight on his soul, and tears spill down his face, hot on his skin, flowing faster that he can control. "She died a hero, she sacrificed everything to save us and the world and the whole damn universe. She's the bravest of us all."

"She  _can't_  be," Vision sobs out, broken, and turns back to Wanda, shaking her more violently, calling out her name. There's an audible sob, from who he's not sure, and Tony gripping his arm, someone else at his other side, hauling him to his feet even as he fights them.

"You gotta calm down, Vision," Tony says, soothing, as if anything can be a balm on seeing Wanda so still. "Look, let's get you to Shuri. She'll have something to help you sleep. How does that sound?"

"Vizh." A breath, a single sound, but hope rises in Vision's chest, and he pulls out of Tony and Strange's grip to turn back, to see a flicker of movement in Wanda's hand, to fall to his knees next to her and take her hand in his.

"I'm here, my love," he breathes, kissing her hand, watching every miniscule movement in her face, her chest shallowly begin to rise and fall. "I'm  _here_ , darling, just open your eyes."

She does, the green still faintly webbed with red, and he starts to cry all over again, his tears falling on the torn fabric of her uniform. "I saw Pietro," she says faintly, a soft smile spreading across her bruised, bloodied face. "He said they're not ready for me yet. He...he said I've got a whole lot of living left to do." Looking around in weak flickers of her gaze, her face screws up in confusion and she asks, "What happened?"

"We won," he says, and she smiles, and he carefully helps her sit up, handling her like she's made of glass. "You did it, my darling, you defeated Thanos. He's gone forever. Everything's going to be alright."

"We're going to be okay?" she asks, and he nods, clasping her hands tightly in his, and there's a sudden sheen of tears in her eyes. "I love you  _so much_."

And he gazes at her. Bruises darkening over both eyes, a cut over her right eye and across her left cheek, blood in her eyebrows and speckling her collar. Clothes torn, hands shaking, but her eyes still shining and her smile still soft. And the words on the tip of his tongue aren't 'I love you too'. No, the words that surge forward, aching to be said, are far more important. A question, a promise. That he can't ask. Not now. Not when he doesn't even have a ring.

So rather than ask this beautiful, incredible, powerful, world-altering woman to be his wife, and hope that she somehow might say yes, he simply smiles through his seemingly unstoppable tears and says, "I love you too."

She kisses him first, and he folds her tightly into his arms, hands in her hair, their tears mingling, her arms thrown around his neck, urgency in every press of their lips. The first kiss that could've been the last, an embrace to welcome a new world, celebrating the ultimate victory over everything that might try to push them apart.

He'll analyse the sudden urge to ask her to marry him later. After raucous celebrations in the Wakandan palace, everyone intoxicated on victory and togetherness and being alive. After watching his friends and teammates give in to the celebration, a grin on every face. In the bed in the east wing, where Wanda will sleep for sixteen hours and miss the sunrise, he'll lie next to her, breathing her in, and think further on proposing.

* * *

**2.**

Leaving the bathroom with his tie hanging loose beneath his collar, Vision finds Wanda frowning at her reflection, and before she notices him he lets himself drink in how beautiful she is, red dress gently skimming over her curves, her heels waiting to be stepped into. "You're stunning," he says, and she glances back at him.

"I can't hide the scar," she says sadly, her hand reaching up to trace the silvery scar that now slashes above her eyebrow. "I want it to go away. How am I supposed to look beautiful with  _this_  on my face now?"

"You  _are_  beautiful," he insists, and presses a gentle kiss over the scar. "You should be proud of this scar, Wanda. It shows that you saved the universe and everyone in it. We wouldn't be going to this wedding if you hadn't been so brave."

"I love you," she breathes, smiling softly, and rises up on her tiptoes to kiss him. She's said the same three words every day since Thanos was defeated, and they moved back into the compound as the world pieced itself back together, and he's still not used to the beautiful way they weave together in her voice.

A knock on the door breaks the kiss, and Wanda hides her giggle in Vision's shoulder when it's Rocket standing there, a black bowtie wrapped around his neck and his glare broadcasting exactly how unhappy he is about that arrangement. "Car's here," he says gruffly, and shuts the door behind him, continuing down the line of bedrooms.

Wanda's eyes are so warm and happy as she carefully knots Vision's tie for him, and reaches up to kiss his cheek. "You look so handsome," she says, and he ducks his head bashfully. "I'm glad you're gonna be my date to every wedding that's bound to happen after all this."

"You think there will be more?" he asks as she turns away to step into her heels, balancing precariously on one foot to adjust the straps.

"The universe nearly ending has a funny way of making people realise what's really important to them," she says, and he wonders if she really is giving him a pointed look as she says it. Pulling a length of silk in a slightly darker shade of red than her dress around her shoulders and grabbing her bag from the nightstand, she curls a hand into the crook of his arm and says, "Let's go. I can't wait to get photographed with my handsome boyfriend for the first time."

The outside of the hotel Tony is marrying Pepper in is flooded with reporters, cameras flashing in every direction beneath umbrellas shielding vulnerable people from the sun blazing down. It's all overwhelming, the reminder of their celebrity when most of the weeks since the final fight in Wakanda have been spent in the compound, simply being together. Only Wanda's hand in his keeps him grounded as they climb the front steps, voices from every side. She stops him when a reporter they know calls out to them, a smile on his face as he glances at their joined hands and asks, "So this is love?"

"Absolutely," Wanda says, a blinding smile on her face as she glances up at Vision, and he can't help smiling back at her, softening at seeing her so aglow with love. "But don't mind us. Today is about Tony and Pepper."

As is to be expected for a Stark wedding, no expense has been spared, the hotel decorated from top to bottom, the receptionist handing them their room key as they approach, and Wanda is smiling, looking in every direction, wonder in her eyes. "I've never been to a wedding before," she says, and Vision pulls her closer to his side. "Oh, of course, obviously you haven't either."

"There's no one I'd rather have by my side," he says, and she grins, darting up to kiss him.

" _Weddings_ ," someone scoffs behind them, and Vision breaks the kiss to find Sam grinning at them. "They bring out the PDA in every couple."

"You're just jealous I have a date and you don't," Wanda says, and smiles sweetly at Sam as he walks past them, into the room decorated in so much white it must be the room where Tony Stark will shortly be married.

Vision has researched the proceedings of a wedding, of course, he's seen movies and TV shows featuring weddings, but nothing could've prepared him for the reality. Sitting close to the front, beside Bruce, Wanda curled into his side, he watches Tony walk in, fiddling with his cufflinks and whispering back and forth with Rhodey. As the music swells and everyone stands, Pepper almost floating into the room with Natasha smiling just behind her, he finds his breath catching as he sees something indescribable blossom across Tony's face. Like he can't believe in his luck. Thinking of himself in Tony's place, watching Wanda in white walking towards him as radiant as Pepper is, he feels almost faint at the possibilities. The solid realisation that marriage is what he wants.

"Tony and Pepper have prepared their own vows for you all today," the minister, an older man with bright eyes, says, smiling between the couple and stepping back to allow them the spotlight.

Pepper speaks first, her eyes alight with joy, lipstick kissed off by Tony when she arrived to the altar, veil moving like water around her freckled shoulders. "Tony, you infuriate me." A roll of laughter through the room, Rhodey's laugh behind Tony loudest of all. "In all the best ways possible, you're the most annoying person I've ever met. You got me tangled up in your world of supervillains and aliens and the world almost ending too many times, and the crazy thing is that I wouldn't change any of it. Without everything that's happened to us in the last ten years, you wouldn't be the incredible man I'm proud to be marrying. Iron Man or no Iron Man, you're a hero to me. I love you, Tony."

"I love you too," Tony says, tears shining in his eyes, and Vision wraps his hand around Wanda's when he hears her sniffle. "Pep, when I hired you to work for Stark Industries, I never would've imagined falling in love with you. You changed everything I thought I knew about relationships. About  _myself_. I never wanted to get married. I thought I was one of those rebels who would never be tied down. I was happy just being a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist." Pepper laughs, and Tony grins through the tears spilling over. "But you made me different. You gave me something to come home to every time I finished saving the world. And you wanting to spend the rest of your life with an idiot like me is the greatest honour in the universe."

"Do you, Anthony Edward Stark, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do," Tony says, beaming from ear to ear, tear tracks on his cheeks, and Vision tries to hide the tears in his own eyes as Wanda's hand tightens in his, turning his head to press a soft kiss to her temple. Somewhere behind them, he hears someone loudly blowing their nose, hears a hiss of, " _Drax_ ," and grins to himself.

"Do you, Virginia Anne Potts, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"Of course I do," Pepper says, smiling into Tony's eyes, and Vision wraps his arm tighter around Wanda when she turns her face into his shoulder, crying silently.

"Then, by the power vested in me by the state of New York, I pronounce you man and wife," the minister says, grinning, and Tony pulls Pepper in for a lingering kiss, the cheering echoing around the room, loudest of all from the collection of heroes seated at the front of the room. When the couple part, both so happy they seem to shine, the minister smiles and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time, Mr. Tony Stark and his wife Mrs. Virginia Stark!"

The room quickly retires to the ballroom holding the reception, tables groaning under the weight of the buffet, and Tony returns from signing his marriage certificate to a chorus of, "Congratulations!" from the group, Sam and Bucky showering him with confetti, and he's grinning more widely than Vision has ever seen, Pepper at his side.

"God, what a nerve-wracking day," he says, pulling out a chair to join their extended table. "Being a groom is terrifying. Thank God I'm a husband now." Pepper beams, kisses him, and the conversation around the table grows louder.

Moving around the people he still can't shake calling teammates, Vision meets Strange's date, Christine, who holds the sorcerer's hand tight and smiles around at the group. Ineffectually tries to comfort a sobbing Drax. Smiles at Mantis giddy with the joy of the day, Nebula watching her with the kind of softness he believes mean there's something more between them. Peter is grinning and looks older than his young years in his suit, sitting between a friend of his, Ned, who keeps gazing around in amazement, and a pretty young woman who Peter introduces as Michelle, blushing fiercely. "So you're really Vision?" Ned asks, blinking up incredulously, and Vision nods. "And you're really dating the Scarlet Witch?"

"Well, I usually just know her as Wanda," Vision says, looking up the table to her laughing with Carol and Gamora while Quill looks mutinous between the trio, feeling his face soften with affection.

"Peter had a massive crush on her after she first joined the Avengers," Ned blurts out, and Peter instantly turns crimson.

" _Ned_!" he hisses, shrinking into the collar of his shirt. "Please don't tell Wanda, Vision! It's  _embarrassing_ , obviously I never thought we'd end up on the same team, and I have no intention of ever telling her, I was only fifteen, and I know that she loves you, I would never  _ever_  try to break you up-"

"It's alright, Peter," Vision says, hard-pressed not to laugh at the young man's distress. "I won't tell Wanda."

He moves away from the trio of teenagers, curving an arm around Wanda's waist and kissing her cheek, beaming at the way she turns into him, leaning into his touch. "What are you talking about over here that has Quill so offended?" he asks, and Carol giggles.

"I'm telling them about the time Peter tried to confess his feelings while we were floating towards a waterfall and screamed for a full minute when he fell before he realised Drax had caught him," Gamora says sunnily, Quill glaring at her and Carol going off into peals of laughter.

"Sorry to interrupt the fun, ladies," Rhodey says, grinning around and holding out a hand to Carol. "But may I have this dance?"

He sweeps her onto the dancefloor, and Wanda smiles as she pulls Vision with her, swaying against him to the slow song spinning through the air, something Vision doesn't recognise. But he's happy just to hold her, to have her leaning against his shoulder, a soft smile on his face. "I love you," he says, and she looks up and smiles.

"I love you too," she says, and stretches up to kiss him, sweet and soft, a kiss he'll never take for granted when he knows how close he could've come to never kissing her again.

The day slowly drifts into night, many of the guests having gone home, leaving only the group of people who so recently saved the world behind. Couples swaying on the dancefloor in each other's arms, Pepper and Tony at the centre of it all, and others around the corners of the room, feet propped up on tables as they talk. Rocket, M'Baku, Luis, Ned, Shuri and Drax appear to be playing poker around one table - Shuri is clearly winning if the outraged expression on Rocket's face is anything to go on - Sam is flirting outrageously with Peter's aunt, and Tony is giving a thumbs up to Peter every time he spins past with Michelle, blushing.

"It's been such a nice day," Wanda says softly from her perch in Vision's lap, her shoes kicked off and her bare feet brushing the floor. She's not as strong as she was before Thanos, still recovering, not yet able to use her powers. The last time she tried, determined and stubborn as the woman Vision first fell for, she collapsed for two hours, lying unconscious on the couch with an ice pack over her forehead while Vision frantically pleaded with her to wake up. "I'm glad there's going to be more weddings."

"Who do you think will get married next?" he asks, and watches her eyes drifting over the couples in the room, tamping down the hope that she'll say the two of them. Instead following her gaze across Clint and Laura swaying and talking in low voices, Peter smiling a lovestruck smile with Michelle's head on his shoulder, Gamora rolling her eyes as Quill dips her theatrically low, Tony and Pepper kissing rather than dancing, Rhodey mouthing the words to the song playing while Carol laughs, Hope dipping Scott and bending her head to kiss his pout away, Strange not looking so severe with Christine in his arms, T'Challa and Nakia grinning and spinning as the bright fabrics of their clothes flash like jewels beneath the lights, Nebula stiff and Mantis shy as they dance.

"Rhodey and Carol," Wanda says decisively, and Vision blinks at her.

"I don't think being apart for twenty years and rekindling the relationship in the middle of a war will necessarily lead to a happy marriage," he says, and she shakes her head fondly.

"Love is love, Vizh," she says, her eyes on him softening. "Hope and Scott won't be next, it'll be a more serious commitment for them because Scott has a child. T'Challa is a king and his marriage will be a process. Strange is far too committed to protecting the stone right now. Gamora and Quill might never get married. Same for Nebula and Mantis. And Peter and Michelle are too young." She smiles sweetly and concludes, "Process of elimination."

"Wanda!" Pepper calls, catching the bouquet Natasha tosses her and holding it aloft. "Come see who'll be next to get married!"

Vision watches fondly as Wanda joins the crowd waiting to catch the bouquet as Pepper turns her back to the crowd with a grin, an eager group taking part in the tradition in the hopes of even a hint about who might be next to get married. Then he finds himself sinking down in his chair and desperately trying not to get noticed when Carol catches the flowers and tosses them directly into Wanda's hands, grinning wickedly.

"I know it's considered bad wedding guest etiquette to propose at someone else's wedding," Tony says to Vision's right, making him start and sink lower in his chair out of embarrassment at the way Tony is grinning, "but if you want to, I really won't object."

"Don't be silly," Vision says, but he knows his words are hollow. "I wasn't...I'm not-"

"Oh please, you and our little witch have been fated to walk down the aisle since you rescued her in Sokovia," Tony says, so casually, like they're not talking about a lifelong commitment. "Just get on with it."

Looking at Wanda, her cheeks pink and Pepper's red, white and yellow bouquet in her hands, Vision almost goes to her. Thinks about going to one knee, in front of all the people they care about, asking her to spend her life with him. He can so easily see her in a white dress, the red hair she seems to want to keep beneath a veil, imagine her gliding up the aisle towards him bright and soft with love.

But he can't. Not yet. "I don't have a ring yet," he says to Tony, who looks almost offended.

"I'll call you when I get back from my honeymoon," he says with a smile. "We'll go find a ring worthy of the saviour of the universe."

* * *

**3.**

"You have any clue what she might like?" Tony asks, crouched low over a display of gaudy diamond rings, the salesman watching him with a hawk-like expression.

"Not those," Vision says, and Tony straightens up. "I don't know. How did you choose Pepper's ring?'

"It matched a necklace I bought her," Tony says, circling around to a display of rings without jewels, various metals ready to be engraved. "Have you bought Wanda jewellery?"

"Well, yes," Vision says, thinking of the ring they saw in the window of a vintage store on a side street, the necklace from a stall in a town market, the gold knotted bracelet that gleams on her wrist every day. "But nothing that would have a matching ring."

"What about the ring she always wear as a necklace?" Tony asks. "It was her mom's, right? Maybe you could find something like that."

"I don't  _know_ ," Vision says hopelessly, staring at the lines of rings until his eyes blur. "It's the ring she'll wear forever, if she says yes."

" _When_  she says yes," Tony corrects, eyebrow arched pointedly. "There's no way that girl is going to say no to you."

"So she'll wear it forever, and it has to be perfect," Vision says, glancing over a series of gold rings bearing the weight of large diamonds. He can't picture any of them on Wanda's finger. "I want her to love it. If the ring is perfect, then she'll say yes."

"Jesus Christ, Vision, the ring doesn't matter!" Tony exclaims suddenly. "You really think Pep said yes to me because I got her a diamond? Wanda will say yes no matter what the ring looks like, or if you don't have one at all. That girl loves you more than anything."

"She didn't call last night," Vision says sadly, reaching for his phone again, in case by some miracle he has something from Wanda. "I don't like her being away."

"You guys should get a cat," Tony says as he pauses at a display of necklaces, looking over each individual one. "Now you have the apartment, and you're both going back to field work, you shouldn't be alone in there. And Nat will catsit if you're ever both away. Remind me to tell you about the time she got chewed out by Fury for almost sabotaging a mission to rescue some kittens."

"I don't know the first thing about taking care of a cat," Vision says, and Tony just grins.

"There was a time when you didn't know the first thing about being in a relationship, and you still managed to make the ultimate romantic gesture and run away to be with your girlfriend," he says, and Vision looks down in embarrassment. "What about this one?"

Leaning over the case Tony is indicating, Vision feels a swell of joy spill through his chest at the ring he's pointing out, carefully encased in a swathe of deep blue velvet, the sheen of it catching the soft romantic store lighting. It's perfectly delicate, a thin gold band, marked by a small red stone at its centre, bordered by two smaller black stones. Looking at it, even under the glass casing, he can picture it on Wanda's finger, gleaming subtly. "It's beautiful," he says softly.

"It would match her uniform," Tony says, bringing Vision out of his reverie, and he's smiling. "Get it. This is the one." He grins when Vision raises a hand to swipe at his eyes, prickling with tears, and says, "That's exactly what I did when I found Pep's ring."

"I love it," Vision says softly, words catching over the lump in his throat, and Tony clasps a comforting hand over his shoulder. "Mr. Stark-"

"Tony," he corrects, and Vision swallows thickly, before anyone can see him cry.

"Tony, I...would you read my speech?" he asks shyly, and Tony eyes brighten. "I've been working on it since your wedding, I...it's on draft six now. I just want it to be  _perfect_. It has to capture the essence of what I love about Wanda, all her beautiful individuality, remind her of everything she is to me. I need her to understand why I want to spend my life with her."

"I'd be honoured, big guy," Tony says, and Vision pulls the carefully folded sheets of paper from his blazer pocket, the pen he's been using to make careful edits clipping them together. "Oh wow, Vision, this...this is four pages." He lifts the corner of the first sheet, and his right eyebrow forms into a perfect arch. "Front and back."

"I know, it's not long enough," Vision says mournfully, not noticing Tony's eyebrows shooting up towards his hairline. "I just don't know how to properly express myself. Every time I sit down to try and write, I can never think of the right way to articulate how I feel."

"I think you should just speak from the heart," Tony says gently. "She knows how you feel. You ran away to be with her even though she was a fugitive and it could land you both in prison. Just recapture the impulsive guy that did that."

Tony waves one of the store employees down for him, arranges all the payment, and the ring is placed neatly in its own blue box, and Vision slides it into the inside pocket of his blazer with a slow smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. He's taken the plunge and bought an engagement ring. Now all he has to do is propose to Wanda. Speak from the heart, and hope she says yes.

As they leave the store, into a faint mist of autumn rain, Tony's phone starts to ring, the familiar tone that indicates a call from another Avenger, and Vision tenses as he answers. Something's gone wrong with the mission, someone's gotten hurt, maybe Wanda's powers drained her again and they haven't been able to revive her, maybe she's in a coma, maybe she's dying somewhere far away and he won't be able to get to her and hold her hand and tell her he loves her one last time before she fades from his life completely.

"Oh, great!" Tony says, loud and bright. "Yep, yep, I'll get the welcome wagon ready at the compound. You guys wrote your pizza orders on that paper I put up in the kitchen right? Okay, well I'll just guess. Yes, I promise not to piss Wilson off by getting pineapple on his. See you in a few hours." He tucks his phone back into his pocket and cheerfully says, "Mission successful. They should be touching back down at the compound around six, so you've got a few hours to go and make yourself and the apartment pretty so you can give the world's favourite witch that ring."

"Yes, Mr. Stark," Vision says, and Tony grins at him as he walks away, the ring box a weight in his pocket, his fingers brushing against it every few moments to be sure that this is real. He's going to propose to Wanda. Ask her to spend her life with him. For better or for worse.

Their apartment -  _theirs_  - is already perfectly clean, from him working out his late-night anxieties being separated from her, and he pulls out a recipe and starts to cook, the rhythms of it soothing his nerves about the thought of proposing. While the sauce for the pasta simmers slowly, he changes his outfit. Subtly. Just a different blazer, slightly more fitted, and a white shirt. He remembers very well the night when they were in Portugal and Wanda spent half of their evening whispering in his ear about how much she  _appreciated_  his white shirt.

He's just finished lighting candles and setting the table, pouring out two glasses of the well-aged Wakandan liquor that was a housewarming gift from Okoye when he hears footsteps outside, and gives himself a moment to breathe before he turns around at the door opening. Every part of him relaxes in relief when Wanda walks through the door completely unharmed, throwing her backpack under the coat hooks and smiling at him. "Well hello, handsome," she breathes, and crosses the room into his arms, pulling on the lapels of his blazer to draw him into a kiss. "I missed you."

"How was the mission?" he asks, somewhat distracted by the way her hands are creeping down the buttons of his shirt. "I...I made dinner."

"It smells delicious," she says, and the corner of her mouth curls up in a smirk. "Candles, dinner,  _and_  a white shirt? Consider me seduced, Vizh."

"Oh, I wasn't...I wasn't..." She presses a kiss to the hollow of his neck, and he clutches at her momentarily. "I wasn't trying to seduce you. I just...just wanted to do something nice for you coming home."

"You can do a lot more than nice for me," she breathes, and trails her fingertips down the line of his shirt buttons and over his belt buckle until he gasps her name and she gives him one of her patented seductive smiles, pushing his blazer off him. "Now, as much as I love you in white, right now I want you naked."

She pulls him with her to their bedroom, unbuttons his shirt and shoves him down onto their bed, straddling his hips and kissing him greedily, with all the pent-up passion of two weeks apart, and he completely forgets anything but being with her after their longest separation since Thanos. Kissing her neck until she's gasping, turning her onto her back and trailing kisses down her stomach, not noticing how much time has passed until she rolls off him and curls into his side, smiling a smug, sated smile.

"I missed you," he says, and she grins and kisses him. "God, I missed you  _so much_." Tangling their fingers gently together, he says, "Tony thinks we should get a cat. It would stop either of us being so lonely when the other is away."

"I was never allowed pets as a kid, Pietro was allergic," she says, eyes bright. "Doesn't Peter's girlfriend volunteer at a shelter? We could go there!"

"You really want to get a cat?" he asks, and she nods, beaming at him. "With me?"

"We've been together for two and a half years, babe," she says softly. "I think it's about time we started a little family." She smiles at him, and his stomach lurches at the thought of having a  _family_  with her. If they're starting with a cat, they could go anywhere. Perhaps children. One day.

"I love you," he breathes, and she smiles and leans in to press her lips to his.

And in the haze of kissing, watching her leave the room to go and reheat their dinner so they can lie in bed and eat and talk, and spend their night getting mildly drunk and having sex, he forgets about the ring box. Still in the pocket of the blazer he'll find crumpled on the kitchen floor in the morning.

* * *

**4.**

"Can we have all of them?" Wanda asks, starry-eyed as she crouches down in front of a pen holding a litter of chocolate Labrador puppies, all making frantic squeaking noises and wiggling against the wire separating them, licking her fingers through the gaps.

"You know we don't have room for a dog, darling," Vision says, and she stands up slowly, turning to him with her eyes wide and pleading. "Wanda,  _no_."

"I can't believe the one thing you're actually good at refusing me is a puppy," she says, pouting, but still taking his hand, curling into his side. "One day, when we have a house and a yard, we're getting a dog."

"Okay," he says, and she grins, bouncing onto her tiptoes to kiss his cheek as they're led through the rest of the dog pens and into a room filled with cats, and Wanda lights up, running to the first pen and admiring the cat stretching out inside.

"You said you're interested in a kitten?" Annie, the young woman leading them around, asks, giving Vision a warm smile. He nods, and she opens another door. "We keep them separated from the adult cats because they're on such different feeding schedules. Some of them are as young as three weeks."

"What leads to an animal being in a shelter so young?" he asks, smiling helplessly at Wanda making cooing noises at an orange and white cat in its cage.

"People abandoning unwanted litters, usually," Annie says, and her eyes flare with a quiet sort of anger, and Vision feels similarly. He can't understand why anyone would want to get rid of such intelligent, beautiful creatures. "Or people abandoning pregnant cats. We have a litter in at the moment who our owner found around the back of his building after their mother was hit by a car."

"That's so  _sad_ ," Wanda breathes, her hand sliding into the crook of Vision's elbow, her head on his shoulder. "How could anyone abandon such precious babies?"

"Are you willing to take on more than one cat?" Annie asks, leading them into the smaller kitten room, Vision's breath catching seeing how small some of them are. "A lot of our kittens are littermates who have already bonded and can't be separated."

"We only talked about one," Vision says, Wanda leaving him to look in at a litter of tabby kittens, play-fighting and letting out incomprehensibly adorable mews. "If it would affect the kittens psychologically to be separated, perhaps we could take on more than one. My concern would be finding someone to take care of more than one cat if we were both away."

"Actually, I think I have the perfect cat for you," Annie says. "If you go through that blue door, there's seating and a kettle. Make yourselves comfortable and I'll bring her for you two to take a look at."

She vanishes away into yet another room, and Wanda is grinning from ear to ear as Vision flicks the switch on the kettle, pleased to notice that the shelter uses the same tea bags they have in the apartment. "I can't believe we're actually doing this," she says, eyes shining. "This feels so  _adult_."

"Have you never had a pet before?" he asks gently, pouring water into two mugs emblazoned with the shelter's logo.

"I had a fish when I was really young," she says, and when he glances at her he can see her almost bouncing with excitement. "But I've never lived anywhere stable for long enough to have a pet like a cat or a dog that  _needs_  stability."

"We'll provide the perfect home," he says softly, and she smiles at him.

When Annie returns, Wanda springs up from his lap so fast she nearly spills her mug of tea, and Vision's breath catches at the tiny bundle of black fluff in Annie's arms. "This is one of our littlest kittens," Annie says, and sets the kitten down on the table. "Our in-house vet puts her at about six weeks old. You'd have to wait about a month to take her home, but if you like her..."

"Does she not have any littermates?" Vision asks, while Wanda is leaning over the table in amazement, her eyes wide and shining.

"She was part of a litter of four found abandoned at the side of the road," Annie explains, helping herself to a biscuit from the bird-patterned tin. "It was her making so much noise that got them found, wasn't it, sweetheart? Two of the litter were dead before they came in, it was just her and a little grey boy that we took in. But we sadly lost him too after about a week. So she's all alone, looking for a good home."

"Vizh?" He looks from Annie to Wanda, cradling the kitten to her chest, and he can see the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. The kitten is so small against her striped shirt, blinking green eyes at Vision, and Wanda is holding her protectively close. "I really like her."

"Does she have a name?" Vision asks, cautiously crossing the room. Just waiting for the kitten to hiss and shy away.

"We tend not to name kittens, lots of families with young children are looking for kittens and they like to choose the names themselves," Annie says, and smiles when Vision nervously extends a hand and the kitten butts her nose against his fingers. "I think you guys are a perfect match."

"Can we have her?" Wanda asks, and she's starting to sound choked up, and Vision puts an arm around her and brushes a kiss to the top of her head.

"We'll have to set up a home inspection for you two," Annie says, just as the kitten curls further into Wanda's chest. "But it looks like she's taken a shine to you. If all goes well, you can take her home in a month."

And luckily, everything goes perfectly as planned. They buy everything they can think of for their new kitten, to give her a perfect new home and make up for how terrible her start was, and within a month they're at the shelter signing off on the paperwork and there are tears in Wanda's eyes when Annie brings their kitten out to them. "Hi sweetheart," she breathes, taking her in her arms, a helpless smile on her lips. "Vizh,  _look_  at her."

"She seems to love you already," he says softly, watching the tiny paws kneading at Wanda's chest, the way her eyes have lit up.

"Pandora, do you wanna go to your dad?" she asks, and carefully pulls their kitten's paw from her shirt, turning her around to blink her big green eyes at Vision. "Can you say hello?"

Stretching out a tiny paw, Pandora lets out a high-pitched mew, and Vision runs two fingers over the top of her head, rubbing her indescribably soft ears. "She's adorable," he says softly, and Wanda smiles up at him. "I think she likes you better, though."

"Aww, Vizh, don't worry," she coos, and kisses him, eyes gleaming mischievously. "I like you best." He relents and smiles at her, and pulls the collar carefully out of his pocket, trying not to dislodge the ring box next to it.

"You put it on her," he says, pressing it into Wanda's hands, and watching the single tear slip down her cheek when she wraps the collar around Pandora's neck, her tag gleaming. "Do you like her?"

"I  _love_  her," Wanda breathes, and gathers the kitten to her chest, blinking away a sheen of tears. "Let's get her home. I wanna show our baby around."

Pretending that her referring to even a kitten as their baby doesn't make him jolt at the magnitude of it, how easily she acts like they're a family, he follows her out of the shelter, driving them back to the apartment while Wanda plays with Pandora in the passenger seat, holding her up to the window to watch the world flashing by. She rushes up the stairs ahead of him, and he smiles at seeing her so excited for the first time in so long, opening their door and murmuring to Pandora. "See, sweetheart, this is your new home. I know it's kinda scary at first, but I promise we're going to be so nice to you."

Just as they were instructed to, he fills up the food and water bowls, while Wanda is following Pandora around the apartment, filming her adorable stumbling walk and softly encouraging her to snuffle around. "I think she likes it here," he says, and Wanda looks him with a helpless smile, and he crosses the room to curl an arm around her waist and press a kiss to her temple. "Are you happy?"

"I've never had this before," she says softly, watching Pandora batting curiously at the laces of her boots. "She's just so sweet." She turns her bright eyes up towards him and asks, "Are  _you_  happy?"

"I think she's adorable," he says, and Wanda grins ear to ear. "And I'm very glad we took this step together, darling. Now we have an apartment and a pet together."

"I would've gotten an apartment and a pet with you years ago if I could," she says, and curves her hand against the back of his neck to pull him gently down into a kiss.

He pulls away at a sharp spike of pain somewhere just above his ankle, and looks down to see Pandora scaling his leg with what he swears is determination in her eyes. Wanda laughs, leans down to pull Pandora's claws out of his slacks and coos, "Don't be jealous, sweetheart. We're gonna have a problem if you think you're the only one allowed to touch your dad." Cradling Pandora to her chest, she says, "I know he's tall, but he's not a toy, okay? I'll be mad if you leave scars on those gorgeous legs."

"Wanda, I don't think you should flirt with me in front of the kitten," he says softly, and she smirks up at him, kissing him again, the hand not clasped over Pandora rising to cup his cheek. Feeling her tiny body squirming, he ends the kiss and sets a soothing hand over Pandora's back, scratching his fingertips over her soft fur. "Do you think she'll let me hold her?"

"Only one way to find out," Wanda says softly, but he backs away before she can set Pandora in his arms. "Vizh, does this little cutie seriously scare you?"

"I'm scared I'll drop her," he says, and she just smiles. "Should I sit down?"

"If that'll make you feel more comfortable," she says, and he sets himself carefully on the couch, wondering when Wanda tips Pandora into his lap and the kitten blinks her eyes up at him. He runs his fingers tentatively over her back, and she rolls over to show him her belly, wriggling against his hand and purring loudly. Wanda giggles, drops a kiss on his shoulder and says, "I'm kinda jealous you have this effect on another woman, babe."

He can feel himself blushing, and she giggles and kisses his cheek, picking strands of cat hair off her skirt and getting to her feet. "I'll leave you two to get to know each other," she says, crossing to grab a scarf from the hook. His scarf, to be precise, but she wraps it around her neck and grins at him. "I'll run to the Chinese place and get dinner. You want me to pick up some wine too?"

"If you want," he says, distracted by the pressure of Pandora's paws against his arm, and he looks up long enough to see the soft curve of Wanda's smile before the door swings shut behind her.

He waits for five minutes, just to be sure that she hasn't forgotten anything and will come turning back, before he pulls the ring box from his pocket, shaking his sleeve loose of Pandora's chewing at it. "I saw this on Pinterest," he tells her, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen from the stack on the coffee table, while Pandora just blinks slowly at him, flicking her paw at the buttons on his sweater. "I hope I can pull it off the way I saw other people doing it."

Uncapping a new pen, he scratches thoughtfully at Pandora's back while he thinks of what to write. There were various suggestions that he saw online, and his speech will never fit on a single piece of card. He wants to have everything ready for when Wanda comes in the door, to propose to her on this day that's made her so happy and excited. And it's still three weeks away from Christmas, so it won't be considered too cliché to propose now.

Ultimately, he chooses the classic Pinterest question of  _WILL YOU MARRY MY DAD?_  But he writes it in perfect calligraphy, taking his time over every curve and angle of the letters, making sure that it will be beautiful in the photographs they'll take to commemorate this moment. Then he carefully wriggles the ring free of its casing, and turns to Pandora, stretching out on the couch, clearly already making herself at home. "Come here," he says, trying to use the same soft tone of voice Wanda does.

But when he tries to unbuckle Pandora's collar, she lets out a screechy mew and scratches at him, her claws tearing threads from his sweater and piercing his skin, and darts away from him. Staring for a moment at the drops of bloods welling up in the shallow scratches, he replaces the ring in its box and goes searching. Finding her somehow on top of the curtain rod in their bedroom, clinging on for dear life and hissing when he reaches a hand up to try and coax her down.

He's shamefaced when Wanda returns, a bottle of wine under one arm and bags of takeout swinging from her hands. The sign has been torn to shreds and thrown into the trash, and he's sitting on the couch and looking up to admit, "I'm afraid Pandora and I had a little disagreement."

"Did she scratch you?" she asks, and he holds out his arm pathetically, the scratches gleaming gold against his skin. "Oh, you poor thing. Should I kiss it better?"

He gapes at her when she cradles his hand between hers and bends her head to press a lingering kiss to his wrist, right over his pulsepoint. "She...um, Pandora climbed the curtains in our room," he says, feeling himself flushing at Wanda's smirk over the hitch in his breath. "I couldn't get her to come down."

"You get dinner ready and pour us some wine, babe, I'll get her," she says, and leaves the room.

He can't pretend it doesn't sting a little when she comes back less than a minute later with a content kitten in her arms, cooing, "Isn't he bad, sweetheart? I know, he's the worst, he's so big and scary. Don't worry, I won't let him touch you."

"Did I ruin it?" he asks mournfully, and Wanda sits down next to him with Pandora in her lap. She immediately curls herself between them and starts purring loudly.

"I think she likes both her parents, babe," she says, and picks up her wine glass. "Can we toast to the start of our little family?"

"To us," he says softly, clinking his glass against hers and ghosting his fingertips over the ring box in his pocket. Maybe this plan went awry, but he'll figure out a way to make Wanda his fiancée. After the holidays are over, he'll make a new plan. He'll wait until after the holidays, though. Christmas in their apartment, with a tiny stocking for Pandora that Wanda insisted on getting. It's too cliché to put the ring box in her stocking. But, sometime in 2019, he  _will_  propose to her.

It's his only New Year's Resolution, spoken silently to himself as fireworks pop overhead and his very tipsy girlfriend kisses him soundly.

* * *

**5.**

"We really can't thank you enough, Natasha, it's so generous of you to give up your weekend for us," Vision rushes out as Natasha follows him up the stairs, her overnight bag banging against her hip. "We've written down everything we could think of about Pandora, there's the number for our vet and the nearest twenty-four hour clinic, and a helpline if you can't get in touch with either of those, and-"

"Vision, I've watched Clint's house and taken care of three kids, a flock of a chickens, a cow and his precious tractor, I think I can handle one cat," Natasha says, and immediately crouches down when she opens the door and they find Pandora attacking the laces on Wanda's sneakers. "Oh my  _gosh_ , look at this precious little thing! Hi sweetie, I'm your Auntie Nat!"

"Hi Nat!" Wanda calls from the bedroom, where she's been for the better part of a few hours. It's the first time they've been able to go anywhere and do anything for their anniversary, and they're taking full advantage. "Doesn't Vizh look amazing?"

Flushing, Vision mumbles, "I have cat hair on me," as Natasha's eyes sweep over him, her fingers dancing for Pandora to play with. The outfit was chosen with Wanda in mind, a suit that Tony was only too happy to take him to be fitted for when he confessed his plan to propose on their three-year anniversary, and he made sure to choose a white shirt. Daydreaming about the way Wanda's fingertips will trace his lines of vibranium through the fabric.

"He looks hot!" Natasha calls back to Wanda, whose delighted laugh is audible from the bedroom. "You picked a good one, Maximoff!"

The bedroom door swings open, and Wanda leans against the doorframe with a grin. "And how do  _I_  look?" Vision feels his jaw slacken at seeing her like this, so stunningly beautiful, hair curled around her bare shoulders, deep red dress clinging to her down to the waist before sweeping out into a skirt embroidered with intricate black patterns. She smiles at him, and he tries to compose himself, although there's a part of him that wants to cancel their reservation, send Natasha home and sweep his beautiful girlfriend back to bed.

"You look incredible," he breathes, and she beams, crossing the room to take his hand and brush a kiss to the underside of his jaw. Her heels bring her lips four inches closer to his, and he forgets concerns about her lipstick smearing to kiss her, running his fingers through her hair, intoxicated on the seductive scent of her perfume.

"Do I actually need to stay for the night or are you two going to end up back in that bedroom?" Natasha teases, and Vision breaks the kiss first, embarrassment rendering him speechless. Wanda just smiles up at him, eyes bright with happiness, and takes his hand to tug him out the door.

The restaurant he chose came from Rhodey's recommendation, having taken Carol there to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of them meeting, and Wanda looks around in wonder at the soft romantic candlelight, the jazz softly playing from hidden ceiling speakers, the wonderfully intimate atmosphere. "This is a thousand times better than the kebab place we went to for our anniversary last year," she says softly, and he chuckles under his breath, pulling her close to kiss her cheek. "And I get the real you tonight instead of the disguise."

"You've always had the real me," he promises, raising her hand to his lips and pressing a kiss to her palm.

"Don't start that, mister, or we'll never get to eat dinner," she says, arching her eyebrow at him, a silent promise in the gleam of her eyes. "Where are we sitting?"

"At the back, in a private booth," he says, and kisses her forehead. "You go sit down, darling, I'll ask for the wine list." He watches her walk away, a subtle sway in her hips that he knows means their night in the hotel Scott recommended will be extremely interesting, before he approaches a waiter, nervously turning the ring box over and over in his pocket. "Excuse me?"

"How can we help you and Ms. Maximoff tonight, sir?" the young man asks eagerly, almost bouncing on the balls of his feet he seems so excited. "Oh, and you have nothing to worry about, we will be extremely discreet about your presence here this evening. No one wants our customers getting harrassed, regardless of their fame. Oh, I'm Freddie, by the way."

"Tonight is my third anniversary with my girlfriend," Vision says shyly, and Freddie puts a theatrical hand to his heart with a smile. "And I am planning on proposing."

"Oh my gosh, sir, that's so sweet!" Freddie exclaims, then immediately softens his voice. "We're honoured you've chosen our humble little restaurant as the location for this magical night."

"Mr. Stark recommended you to me-"

" _Tony_  Stark?" Freddie asks, and grins even wider when Vision nods. "Oh my gosh oh my  _gosh_  three Avengers have eaten here! This is  _so cool_!"

"So I was hoping you could help me," Vision says, and Freddie nods eagerly. "After we have finished our meal, I think it would be romantic for you to bring us glasses of champagne and put the ring into hers. Can you do that for me? If it's not too much trouble?"

"No trouble at all, sir!" Freddie says cheerfully, and Vision looks to make sure Wanda isn't watching before he hands over the ring box, and Freddie pops it open. "Oh, it's stunning, sir. I'm sure Ms. Maximoff will say yes." He lowers his voice even further and whispers, "You know, I was always rooting for you two. Always saw the spark. From way back during your first press conference after the Battle of Sokovia."

"Oh...thank you," Vision says, and Freddie drops him a wink as he slides the box into his pocket, and Vision turns to go to Wanda, lifting her hand from the table to kiss her fingertips softly.

"What's with you tonight?" she asks, and gives him a glance from beneath her lashes across the table. "It's like you're trying to persuade me to leave early."

"I'm just happy," he says, and smiles at her, so beautiful in the candlelight. "There was a time when I thought you'd never even kiss me back, and now we've been together for three years."

"I love you," she says, and he leans across the table to capture her lips in a lingering kiss. Only breaking away when Freddie sets a bread basket down between them and fills their wine glasses, smiling at them.

Dinner is set down in front of them, steaming gently and smelling delicious, and Wanda's cheeks are starting to flush with the wine, her lips stained softly red, and he can't stop looking at her. She's so beautiful, and he's somehow had three years with her. If all goes to plan, tonight will be the night he asks her to be his wife. His speech has been perfected with help from Tony and, reluctantly, Clint - the only two men he knows who have proposed before. He even managed to have Laura advise him from the point of view of someone being proposed to, after she finished squealing for a few minutes over his shy confession that he was planning to ask Wanda to marry him.

"Do you remember what we did for our first anniversary?" she asks softly, her foot pressing against his ankle beneath the table and a smirk curling one corner of her mouth, and he nearly misses his mouth with his fork. "I'm gonna do that to you again tonight, babe."

"Interesting," he says, slightly hoarsely, and her smirk grows. "I'm not sure we should do that in a hotel bed. As I recall, the table we were on broke and I had to pay damages to the motel."

"But wasn't it worth it?" she purrs, eyes gleaming, and he takes a long sip of his iced water as her foot creeps higher up her leg. "Can we get out of here soon, babe?"

"Don't you want dessert?" he asks, out of sheer desperation. He still needs more time to prepare, he has to psych himself up, and he has to be sure that none of the patrons around them will film his proposal and send it out to gossip sites before they announce it themselves.

"Can't I just have you?" she asks, and presses her foot hard against him beneath the table, and he clenches his fist so tightly his fork bends perfectly in half.

He signals to Freddie for the bill, and Wanda's foot slides away, her eyes dancing with mischief. "Why are you so...eager tonight, darling?" he asks softly, and she gives him a hot glance from beneath her lashes.

"You know what it does to me when you wear white, babe," she says sweetly. "And it's our anniversary. It's romantic. C'mon, you booked a hotel room for a reason."

"I wanted to make this weekend special," he says, and she smiles.

"I'll make sure it is," she promises, and he turns to see Freddie pouring champagne into glasses. Proposal. That was his plan. Even though he'd normally already be frantically trying to get somewhere more private with Wanda looking at him like that, he's determined to propose. It's not making him so nervous his dinner and wine are churning uncomfortably in his stomach. He's definitely fine with doing this in a public space. He's definitely not absolutely terrified she's going to say no. "Vizh? Can I tell you a secret?"

"What is it?" he asks, distracted by the roiling of his own frantic thoughts, his breath starting to shorten in a blind panic.

Wanda's fingers smoothing over the back of his hand make him look at her, her most seductive smirk on her wine-stained lips, her eyes dark. "I'm not wearing any underwear," she breathes, and he jerks out of his seat.

"Change of plan," he says hastily, intercepting Freddie on his way to their table. "I didn't fully consider the implications of proposing in a public place. We'll just be taking our bill and leaving, thank you."

"Oh, well, ostentatious public proposals certainly aren't for every couple," Freddie says brightly. "I'll just dry the ring off for you and you can take it back. I really admire you waiting for the time to be absolutely perfect before you do this."

"Yes, of course, perfect," Vision says hastily, and pays with barely a glance at the bill, slipping the ring box back into his pocket and rushing back to Wanda, taking her hand and tugging her out of the restaurant.

"Why are you so eager tonight, babe?" she teases softly, and he tugs her into a lingering kiss, her teeth on his bottom lip and her tongue against his. They practically fall into the car he booked for the evening, and he gasps out the address of the hotel as she kisses his neck, her fingertips tracing over the raised edges of the vibranium plates through his shirt and making him shudder.

The receptionist at the hotel raises her eyebrows at them when he takes their keycard, and Wanda is whispering filthy things to him in Sokovian the entire elevator ride up to their floor. In the moment before the doors sweep open, she breathes, " _Tvoja najdra_ ž _a kita je u mojoj torbi_ ," and he's hard-pressed not to groan out loud. It's a miracle they make it to their room fully-clothed. The second he's hung the  _DO NOT DISTURB_  sign on the door with shaking fingers, she's on him, pulling his hands straight under her skirt and pushing him back against the door.

He wakes up early in the morning, sore and satisfied, and turns over to look at her. The sheet tugged up around her shoulders, completely naked beneath it, her hair fiery red against the white silk of the pillows. Their clothes scattered across the room, and a lovebite blooming dark on her shoulder. She looks so beautiful, and for a moment he stares at his blazer hung over the back of a chair, the ring box still in the inside pocket. Maybe he could wake her up with a proposal.

But no. The timing isn't perfect, and it just has to be. Now they've been together for three years, the pressure is even greater. She's never explicitly brought up the idea of marriage, but he's seen her secret wedding planning magazines beneath their bed, after Pandora proudly tore up the glossy cover of one and presented it to him when he got out of the shower. She pressed the flowers from the bouquet she caught at Pepper and Tony's wedding and keeps them in her underwear drawer. Clearly, she's expecting at least something.

So instead he grabs his sweatpants from their open overnight bag and tugs them over his hips, orders room service, and wakes her up with waffles and fresh orange juice and a soft kiss.

* * *

**+1.**

Giving the wand another shake so the pom-pom at the end of the string dances across the floor, Vision smiles as Pandora jumps on it, batting at it so it swings back and forth, and Wanda emerges from their room fanning herself, wearing impossibly tiny shorts and a striped crop top. "It's so hot," she groans, tugging her hair back into a messy bun and collapsing onto the couch, shifting her thighs to stop herself from sticking to it. "I just don't wanna do anything."

"Maybe we should go for a walk now it's a little cooler," he says, tugging his shirt away from the small of his back, trying to lower his core temperature when Wanda curls up closer to him, rubbing her face into his chest. "Pandora will be fine on her own for a while. We'll probably find her happily sleeping on my pillow when we come back."

"Can we go to that place that makes the raspberry lemonade to take away?" she mumbles, and he drops a kiss to her hair and nods. "Okay, fine. But you're buying me the ridiculous extra-large cup."

"Yes, darling," he says softly, and she lifts her head to smile at him, giving him a gentle kiss before she climbs off the couch and shoves her feet into her flip flops.

They check one last time that all the windows are shut and leave their apartment with their hands entwined and swinging between them, and he makes sure to keep his temperature lowered so she can curl up to him for some relief from the oppressive evening heat. As she walks along next to him, the sun bright on her pale skin and her lemonade in one hand, he suddenly says, "I have an idea of where we can go."

"As long as it's not the park, it'll be full of teenagers drinking underage and having sex in bushes on a night like this," she says, and he pauses to give her a pointed look.

"Wanda, we've had sex in those bushes."

"It's different when you're in love and have an apartment and a cat," she says with a grin. "We're having perfectly committed and monogamous sex in bushes." She darts closer to kiss his shoulder and breathes, "Take me somewhere special, babe."

With her hand in his, he follows the turn of the streets from memory, and pulls her closer when they're down a familiar alleyway. "Hold on to me," he says softly, and she tangles her legs around him as he rises from the floor. Even though she could fly herself up, there's something wonderfully nostalgic about carrying her. And there's the difference four years makes in the way she arches her hips against his side and kisses his neck.

Once they're on the balcony, she climbs down, and he pushes the door open, taking her hand to pull her into the darkness. "Where have you brought me, babe?" she asks softly, and he runs his hand over the wall until he finds what he's looking for.

A flick of the switch brings lights blazing to life, and Wanda looks around in wonder at the Stark Tower laboratory, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. "I didn't know this was still so intact," she says softly. "I thought Tony had shipped his equipment to the compound."

"He keeps a security guard on retainer for this," Vision says, and crosses the room to run his hand over the silent cradle. The thing that brought him into this world. Began his life, the life he now shares with the stunningly beautiful woman moving around the labs in wonder, her legs so long and slender, the pale skin of her stomach on display when she raises her arms and begging him to drag his lips across her hip bones. "There isn't storage space for all this at the compound."

"I'm sure he'll buy another house soon enough and move all this to it," she says softly, and smiles at the cradle, linking their hands together over the top of it. "This is where we met."

"I know," he says, and she leans across the cradle and kisses him. "I've just been feeling nostalgic recently. Something about it being a year since you defeated Thanos and brought us all peace."

" _We_  defeated Thanos," she says. "All of us. As a team." She turns to look around the room in amazement, her eyes soft. "Sometimes I can't believe it's been four years since we met. It seems like just yesterday."

"You know I thought you were beautiful that first night?" he says softly, and she beams at him. "You were the first thing I saw. You've been my standard for beauty ever since."

"Charmer," she says, but she's smiling, and leaning across the cradle to kiss him again. "Hey...does any of this stuff still work? Could we turn it on?"

"Let me try," he says, and crosses back to the control panel. Searches the depths of his memory, and flicks one of the switches.

Almost immediately, one of the devices catches fire, an alarm starts to scream, and with a loud whirring hum the sprinklers burst into life, soaking him to the bone within just a few seconds. Wanda shrieks, but then she's laughing, and spinning through the labs, her hair plastered to her shoulders and sticking in swirls to her cheeks, and her eyes are bright and her cheeks pink and she's so beautiful he can't breathe, his chest  _aches_ , and he hears himself blurt out, "Marry me," before he's made the conscious decision to say it.

She stops spinning, staring at him wide-eyed, her eyelashes stuck together with water, and her clothes clinging to her curves. "What?" she breathes, and he wishes she could take it back. And yet, there's a new shine in her eyes, a hopefulness in her smile, and he moves closer.

"Wanda," he says softly, and pulls the ring box from the pocket of his shorts, and her hand flies to her mouth, her eyes wide and bright, "we met right here over four years ago, and my life was never going to be complete without you in it. I love you more than I ever imagined it was possible to love someone. Against all odds, we found our way to each other, and we've managed to hold onto what we made when it seemed everything was trying to tear us apart. Our life together is only just beginning, and I want to spend every second of my time in this universe with you." A tear slips suddenly down his cheek, and her shaking hand reaches to smudge it away, and he goes to one knee. "Wanda, my darling, my love - will you marry me?"

"Yes," she whispers, and tugs him to his feet and into a passionate kiss, breathing, "Yes yes  _yes_ ," against his lips. When they break apart, his breathing has turned shallow, and she's smiling so brightly that his chest tightens with adoration, and she holds her hand out to him. "Give me the ring! I've been waiting years for this."

"Really?" he asks, high-pitched with shock, and she nods, biting her lip to try and slow the spread of her smile.

"After the first time you stayed a week with me, in Budapest," she says, and tilts her head up at him. "I knew I loved you. I knew this was forever. But I wanted to wait for you to know it too."

"I love you," he says, and he's crying, her hands cupping his cheeks and smudging his tears away, and he's holding her close. "I love you  _so much_."

"You have no idea how much I love you," she whispers, and kisses him again. "You saved my  _life_ , Vizh. And not just by pulling me out of that train in Sokovia."

"You saved mine," he says, and they're kissing again, tangled around each other with the sprinkles still gushing water over them.

She breaks the kiss, tilting her forehead against his, her hips pressing into his, and says, "Do you think a security team is automatically dispatched when the alarm goes off? Or do you think we have time?"

"I think it's worth the risk," he breathes, and she smirks, pulling his soaking wet shirt over his head and steering him towards the cradle, pushing him back onto the top of it. " _Oh_...right here?"

"I'm gonna tell you something I've never said before, babe," she says softly. "The night we met, I had a  _vivid_  dream about what we're doing right now."

" _Really_?" he chokes out, and she nods, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth in a filthy look. "I didn't know."

"I wanted you the second I saw you," she says sweetly, pressing her hand into his chest, the new pressure of her engagement ring against his skin making him moan at the back of his throat. "And this time there isn't any smoke to block my view."

" _Wanda_!" he exclaims, scandalised, and she just smirks.

"I had to be sure that the man I would one day get engaged to was a good pick," she says, and slides forward to straddle him fully, her hands against his chest. "Even my wildest dreams didn't do you justice."

Then she pulls her shirt over her head, her engagement ring gleaming in the light. She isn't wearing a bra.

There's no more talking.


End file.
